My Fake Christmas Fiance (Kane Christmas #1) - Julie Kriss Page 0,20

room. Naked Mrs. Claus always had the element of surprise.

I had come to the office early to get work done. The last week before Christmas was always crazy, and with the merger coming down to the wire it had been extra busy. I definitely hadn’t come in early to avoid Penny after that scene last night.

Okay, I was avoiding her a little. I figured we both needed space after I’d nearly jumped her in my hallway. That hadn’t been very gentlemanly of me, considering that right before we bumped into each other I’d been trying to push my fantasy image of Penny in bed down the hall out of my mind. Even inside my head, I’d been trying to be…nice.

But when I’d seen her, with her hair down around her shoulders and those tiny sleep shorts on, it had been really hard to be nice.

Still, I’d tried. I called it a win that I hadn’t kissed her senseless, glasses and all.

I’d almost stopped thinking about it when Sophie brought Penny into my office. Even though I was the CEO, Sophie just walked in without even knocking on my door. The receptionist always let her pass. It was a perk of being the boss’s sister.

“Here she is,” Sophie said, leading Penny into the room. Penny still had her coat on, Sophie’s red one. Her curls were tied neatly up at the back of her head and she was wearing office makeup—pretty and understated. Her glasses were half-fogged from coming in from the cold.

Her cheeks flamed red when she saw me. “Uh, hi,” she said, taking off her glasses and trying to wipe the fog from them.

I came toward her. I was wearing a suit—I didn’t wear the mountain man look to the office—and her fuzzy gaze fixed on the knot of my tie as I came closer. “Hey babe,” I said warmly, because Sophie was watching. “Let me take your coat.” I leaned down and kissed her cheek, which was chilled and smelled sweet.

She stiffened just a little, but we had a role to play, so she let me do the kiss. She also let me slide the red coat from her shoulders and hang it on the coat rack in the corner of my office. Beneath it she wore an outfit that was all business, this one a dark olive green skirt with a cream blouse and cardigan. It was her usual working-too-hard do-gooder look, and for some reason it was irresistible. Probably because the skirt couldn’t hide how nice her legs were, and now that I’d seen her in her sleep camisole, I had a better idea of what her breasts looked like beneath the blouse.

I had a one-track mind when it came to Penny, it seemed.

Penny set down her shoulder bag, the blush still on her cheeks. “Where will I be working?”

“I’ll show you your office when I give you the tour. You can leave your things in here for now.”

“Wes, I need to talk to you.” Sophie grabbed my arm and pushed me just outside my office door. “Nice to meet you, Penelope,” she said over her shoulder as we left.

“What?” I said to my little sister as we stood outside. “That was kind of rude.”

Sophie shook her head, frowning like there was a problem. “Wes, I like her.”

“Okay?” I felt my eyebrows go up.

“She’s smart. And nice. Not your usual type. She’s moved all the way here to Denver. I want to help her out.”

“With what?”

“She doesn’t have a car. We have company vans at the warehouse that we’re not using.”

Now I was even more surprised. Sophie didn’t make friends easily, and she had literally never liked any woman I’d dated before. “You want to give Penny a company car?”

“Lend. I want to lend her one. We’re so close to Christmas that most of the deliveries to retailers are already done. And we won’t need the vehicles at all between Christmas and New Year’s. January will be slow, too. We can spare one of the vans until Penelope gets her own car.”

“That’s a good idea,” I said. “Thanks.”

Sophie lowered her voice, and a trace of a smile touched her lips. “Make her the offer and tell her it was your idea. Score some extra points with your fiancée. On me.”

I nodded, and Sophie left. Penny must have worked some kind of magic, because Sophie never took to people right away like that.

Too late, it crossed my mind that I should have given Sophie a heads-up that